


Atlas Shrugged

by darthobi (wentzadeux)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Genre: Angst, M/M, More Mustafar Bullshit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 17:39:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7517341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wentzadeux/pseuds/darthobi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Obi-Wan Kenobi is tired. He's tired of watching everyone he cares about die around him.</p><p>Even more, he just can't bear to be the one to kill the last one who actually matters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Atlas Shrugged

**Author's Note:**

> (Edit- I changed the rating from explicit, simply bc I just couldn't make explicit-ness happen. Part two to come soon!)

Obi Wan is tired. 

He is tired of death, loss, pain, everything. He's tired of it all. 

_ It probably started with Qui Gon _ , he muses as he stares down the man before him, circling like a rabid animal stalking prey. Unfamiliar to Obi Wan. 

He's tired, he thinks, because all of his training, all of his adherence to the Jedi Code, was for nothing.  _ Qui Gon is dead, basically the entire order is dead, the future of the order is dead...Padmé is looking to be too, if this takes any more time _ . 

The Jedi casts a wistful glance at the senator, unconscious but alive. He can feel it in the Force, faintly, beneath a different and much more dominant signature that is nearly overwhelming him. 

He returns his attention to the dark figure in front of him. When his words fail him, he must do as his Code orders, and he draws his lightsaber, igniting it to life.

_____

Bloodied and exhausted, Obi Wan half stands above his opponent, who he mentally refuses to acknowledge. How can he reconcile this angry, rabid creature with Anakin- his padawan, his brother, the other half of his soul? 

The pressing weight of grief threatens to overtake him as he processes this, truly thinking over it for the first time. 

_ Anakin  _ is the unstable being before him. Anakin committed all the murders, and was planning to do the same to Obi Wan.  _ He never meant his offer to let me walk away,  _ Obi Wan thinks.  _ He knows that I would never leave Padmé to this, and I would never allow him to walk away. _

He can feel the hatred and overwhelming fury spark through the quickly unraveling Force bond between his former padawan and himself. He grasps at the threads of it, hoping to try and reach Anakin once more through their once indestructible bond.

_ Anakin. Please.  _ He thinks, hearing the desperation laced with exhaustion in his tone.  _ Don't do this.  _

Below him, Anakin laughs. A dark, broken thing, so different from the laugh Obi Wan could recognize before his own. 

"Tired, old man? Have you had enough?" He sneers, stepping in the direction of his former mentor. His lightsaber was still drawn, creating a strange contrast with the red flecks of embers floating around the glowing blue weapon. 

Obi Wan says nothing, but stares at Anakin, searching for something,  _ anything _ that he can connect to the boy he watched grow up and the man he grew to trust like no other. He was unsuccessful as he searched the yellow eyes, the sunken and dark skin of the man's face. 

The realization hit him squarely then.  _ It's over.  _ Anakin _ is gone,  _ he thinks _. All that remains is this shell, with violence and anger filling up what used to be Skywalker.  _ What was the name Sidious had named him? Right.  _ Lord Vader.  _

The overwhelming sense of loss truly sinks in, and hard, for Obi Wan. He squeezes his arms around his torso as if to keep his broken heart from leaping out of his chest, and half dropped to the ground, one knee in the dirt and ash, the other bent to support his weight. 

Anakin's (Vader’s?) lips pulled back over his teeth in a grin, one of a predator about to pounce. "You could never have won this," he says, voice ringing out. "You have no idea, the power I now wield,  _ Master _ . It's so much more than you or I ever knew before and it is  _ exhilarating _ ."

Obi Wan struggles to his feet, standing and looking down the slope towards Anakin. The taller man tenses.

His voice as weak as he says, "It is over, Anakin. I have the higher ground." He realizes his words have no weight as Anakin prepares to leap at him, declaring something or the other about underestimating the power he wields.

Instinct tells Obi Wan to draw his weapon then, as he sees Anakin jump and begin to twirl overhead, as if it was in slow motion. He can see, thanks to the Force, perhaps, how his former padawan would make the same mistake he had always pointed out in practice; he was so intent on balancing and executing the flip that he would forget to use his lightsaber to guard himself as he was vulnerable overhead. Obi Wan would smile and laugh at the predictability of Anakin's fighting style had the circumstances been different.

His hand twitches to grab his weapon, to take advantage of the weakness that Anakin has left him. One upward blow with the lightsaber would end the other man's attack, hopefully finishing this conflict so Obi Wan could hurry to get Padmé to get the medical help she so desperately.

All at once, almost like a vision, Obi Wan sees the path that his decision sets; surely his lightsaber would cut through Anakin's body effortlessly, dropping him to the ground below the two. The simple thought of that, of seeing Anakin in pieces in the dirt, stays Obi Wan's hand. 

_ I'm tired of loss, _ He thinks, whirling to face Anakin as he lands neatly on the slope above him. 

"Now who has the higher ground?" The taller man asks, looking down at Obi Wan, a cruel grin on his face. Obi Wan grimaces, hating this evil, ugly variation of Anakin's typical cheerful-yet-always-smug smirk. 

"It seems you do," The older man says, holding his lightsaber, still off. 

Anakin waits, twirling his lightsaber once, watching for a heartbeat to see what Obi Wan's next step would be, and seems almost surprised when his opponent doesn't move. 

"I would never expect you to give up, Obi Wan. But then again, I guess I didn't know you like I thought I did." He sneers. 

Obi Wan lets out a short bark of laughter. "I think that's an understatement,  _ Anakin _ . See, I thought you were my friend but apparently you're a murderous Sith Lord! Tell me, how have  _ I  _ deceived _ you?" _ His voice cracks at the end, his composure following suit.

Anakin swallows, looking miffed for a second before regaining his own composure. There is the familiar noise of a lightsaber being shut off, then a pause before Anakin spoke again. 

"I trusted you and all you did was question me and doubt me," He snarls. "You, and the rest of the Jedi!" He sneers as he says  _ Jedi. _

_ " _ Me?!" Obi Wan is outraged. "I did nothing but put trust in you," he chokes out, taking a shaky step towards Anakin. "And you repay me by trying to kill me? Kill our fellow Jedi? Oh Anakin. I've failed you so badly, more than you could understand." His anger is quickly spent, quickly replaced with the grief of his own failures. 

As he says this, he drops to his knees just a few feet before Anakin, utterly defeated.  _ So. Tired _ . 

"You turned her against me. You didn't trust me so you talked to Padmé, and you turned her against me." Anakin mutters. "You turned her AGAINST ME!" He repeats those words a few times, in a sort of broken tone. He is shaking, his fists clenched and his shoulders hunched. 

Obi Wan doesn't look up at Anakin, not wanting to see the crazed yellow eyes, the anger radiating off of him tangible. "I did no such thing, Anakin." He says softly. "I went to talk to Padmé, because I knew she would know where you were. I talked to her so I could find  _ you _ ."

Anakin laughs. "So you could kill me then? Why should I believe a word that comes out of your mouth, you liar?" He begins shaking all over, the anger snapping and sizzling in the Force around them. 

"To make sure you were alive, you obstinate  _ moron _ ! Because everyone else was dead.....and when I didn't find your body, I had  _ hope  _ that I was not alone," he stops, swallowing the grief threatening to overtake his voice. "That I was not alone," he repeats, "and that better than that, I still had  _ you _ ."

His voice breaks again, causing Anakin to freeze for a moment. Obi Wan swears he can see remorse in his eyes, but before he can even react, Anakin blinks and has pushed whatever thought that was away, strengthening his resolve. 

Anakin snarls. "I've had enough of your talk. Get up and face me like a true noble  _ Jedi _ ," he spits out the last word. Obi Wan hears the familiar whirring of a lightsaber being ignited to life, yet he does not move to bring his own up.

Obi Wan looks up, instead, at Anakin. He looks at this man, shaking with rage and fear and more power than what he knows to do with, and tries for the third time to see the small boy from Tatooine that he promised he would make into a Jedi.

_ I have failed him. I have failed the Council. Most of all, I failed Qui-Gon. I couldn't even fulfill his last dying wish.  _

That last thought is what finally breaks Obi Wan, truly and utterly. The weight of the world has proven too much for him, and he has given up. 

"I will not fight you Anakin. I cannot bear any more grief and loss, not today nor ever." He states emotionlessly, looking at the ground as he kneels in the soot and ash. He sets his lightsaber next to him, and closes his eyes, waiting for the end.

Now is Anakin's turn take him by surprise, as moments pass and Obi Wan is still alive and in one piece. He raises an eyebrow, opening one eye to peer at Anakin. 

The younger man has his eyes closed, his face turned away. His hand has dropped, his lightsaber pointed towards the ground carelessly, as Anakin is frozen in this disbelief or deep thought, though which Obi Wan cannot tell. 

They both stay like this for quite awhile, at an odd impasse. Obi Wan knows in his heart he will not kill Anakin today. What he doesn't know is why Anakin had not killed him yet; it's not like he hadn't already tried to do so, so what stops him now? The Sith do not have the sense of honor to let their opponents die in battle; any of the Sith Lords Obi Wan had encountered would have struck him the minute he held back from taking advantage of the overhead flip. 

"Join me."

Obi Wan's thoughts come to an abrupt stop when he hears this. 

______

_ What? _

"You heard me," Anakin acknowledges him out loud, sensing his confusion. He shuts his lightsaber off, dropping it to his belt. 

"Obi Wan, we could overthrow Sidious. We could end him and fix everything!" Anakin says, more certain now. He feels the power coursing through him, though it keeps him steady now, rather than blinded as he was moments before.

Obi Wan still has not moved, Anakin notes. Not even a single twitch, aside from those eyes following his maddened pacing. 

Those eyes, filled with grief, anger, fear, all things Anakin had yet to see in the older Jedi's eyes before today. He felt a flare of protective anger in himself at that thought, instinctively wanting to attack whatever had shaken Obi Wan this badly. 

_ Wait, that was me,  _ Anakin realizes.  _ I'm responsible for this, just like every other fa-  _ His thoughts are cut off by Obi Wan's response, finally. 

"Why?" Kenobi asks, voice shaking. "Why do you think that after you tried to kill me, after you nearly killed  _ Padmé _ ," Anakin flinches, his wife's name striking through his heart and stirring up the fear in it. "-That I would trust that you wouldn't turn around and betray me again?" Obi Wan finishes angrily. 

Anakin bristles at the hostile tone, staring him down. However, when he makes eye contact with Obi Wan again, he slightly relaxes, understanding the look in his best friend's ever so expressive eyes. Cautious hope. A small inkling of a 'yes'.

Carefully, Anakin steps towards Obi Wan, offering him his cybernetic hand. He hesitates before taking it,  allowing Anakin to pull him to his feet.

"We could make things better, Obi Wan." Anakin says quietly, still gripping his hand, eyes hopeful now. 

The same hope in Anakin fills his chest, overtaking the cold tendrils of fear. He can tangibly feel the overwhelming anger melting away, and his supposed 'hatred' of Obi Wan going away with it. 

He continues to wait for his former master's response; those words will truly make or break their relationship from here on, and they both know this. 

Anakin realizes he doesn't know what he will do if Obi Wan rejects him. Had it been just moments before, when the red haze of Mustafar seemed to fill him, he would have cut the last Jedi Master down without a second thought, no remorse for the body falling back into the lava. 

But now, with his thoughts far more clear than they had been in days, he isn't so sure he could take Obi Wan's life like that. He doubts he even would've before, wondering if that would have pulled him out of his anger.

Anakin instinctively reaches out to Obi Wan through the Force, cursing himself internally for breaking off their bond. He is blocked out of Obi Wan's thoughts, the other man's shields held tight as he is staring down at the ashen ground before Anakin.

"Do you understand," Obi Wan begins hoarsely, opening his eyes and bringing them to meet Anakin's. "The weight of what you ask of me, pa-Anakin?" His eyes are silvery, pain-filled and reflecting the angry, red light of the planet. 

"Do you realize that you've asked me to turn my back on my whole livelihood, the one constant I've known my whole life? More than Qui Gon, more than you?" He whispers, remaining on the ground. 

Anakin feels his chest constrict at his broken words. His instinct is again to be defensive of Obi Wan, immediately angry at whatever has caused him this pain. He quickly remembers that it was him, and him alone. 

The older man's words sink in, sounding more and more like a rejection. Anakin tries to summon the anger, just boiling beneath a surface he can't breach in this moment. His flesh hand clenches into a fist, as he realizes what Sidious would want him to do. 

Then, Obi Wan speaks again.

"You're all I have left, Anakin. I could never say no to you, anyways."

He felt the hope blooming in his chest, pushing away his childlike worries. _ I won't be alone, _ he thinks,  _ I don't have to live alone... _

Now things will be different, but more or less the same. Anakin and Obi Wan, Skywalker and Kenobi,  _ the _ team. Helping the galaxy. Helping each other. (Obi Wan cleaning Anakin's messes, Anakin rescuing his danger-magnet of a best friend from danger. Maybe more, without the Jedi Code to limit their relationship)

As Anakin returns his gaze, he can feel those cold tendrils of fear working their way into his heart once more. They never stayed gone for long.

_ He's going to trick you. Cut him down where he stands, he's a traitor! _

_ You don't deserve his companionship. You don't deserve happiness. _

_ Save Padmé. He sent her here. Avenge her! _

______

Obi Wan watches Anakin's emotions play out in front of him, familiar and strange all the same. He sees the hope, the lightening of the harsh yellow, almost resembling the child from Tatooine. This is familiar, genuine Anakin.

Then his eyes darken, clouded and angry as when Obi Wan had seen when the man who was supposed to love Padmé above all else choked the life from her lungs before him, as she pleaded with him to stop, stop,  _ Anakin I love you! _

He does not recognize this, and has no way of expecting the gloved hand flashing out to actually grip his throat, not with the Force. 

His own hands blindly claw at the inhumanly tight grip around his throat, cutting off almost all of the air to his lungs. The familiar Anakin is gone once more, replaced by Sidious' apprentice, whom Obi Wan was sworn to destroy.

Whom Obi Wan had just about pledged himself to.

An overwhelming sense of failure washed over him again. He repeated his failures in his head like a mantra:  _ I failed Qui Gon. I failed Padmé. I failed the Jedi. I failed Yoda now. I failed Anakin. I failed  _ **_Anakin_ ** _. I failed.  _

A broken noise leaves his lips, as he stares into Anakin's rage filled expression, seeing his own broken one reflected in the burning Sith yellow. 

"You're a LIAR," Anakin screams at him, no different to his earlier accusations. "You'd just as soon strike me down as join me, you're a  _ Jedi _ ," he sneers. His grip tightens ever so slightly, bringing Obi Wan to his senses.

"A-an-akin.....ple.....asse" he croaks, tugging with all his strength, as well as the Force, at the durasteel hand. 

His former padawan stops, horror overtaking his features as he drops Obi Wan to the ground, the older man wheezing into the ashen earth.

Obi Wan’s ears are ringing, his vision tunneled and hazy as he looks down at his hands splayed on the ground. As his hearing and vision clears, he becomes aware of Anakin’s presence beside him.

“-orry Obi Wan I’m so sorry I didn’t mean it I’m sorry-” Anakin is repeating this now, kneeling at his side. One hand is hovering near his shoulder, unsure if it should actually touch him or not. 

It is very clear to Obi Wan now how different this Anakin is. Either consumed by rage, or clouded by fear and paranoia, his once confident friend is deeply in need of help.  _ Help that you were too oblivious to see he needed,  _ he reprimands himself. 

Taking a steadying, wheezing breath, Obi Wan finally answers him. “It’s okay, Anakin. It’s okay.” He tries to soothe the other man, his voice not quite having the effect he wanted. Anakin visibly calms, relief overtaking him. 

“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” he whispers. Obi Wan sighs, realizing just exactly he’s committed himself to. 

“We’ll figure it out. Together.” He answers slowly, mind already formulating their next steps, the first one being their departure from this Sith-damned planet.

Then to help Padme, while he plotted just how to take out Anakin’s new master. 

The ruthless ideas that came to mind nearly shocked Obi Wan.  _ Revenge is not the Jedi way,  _ he reminded himself. He then remembered just what his pledge to Anakin truly meant.

_ I am no longer a Jedi. _

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
